/*
 * Copyright 2002-2004 the original author or authors.
 * 
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */ 

package org.springframework.core;

/**
 * Interface that can be implemented by exceptions etc that are error coded.
 * The error code is a String, rather than a number, so it can be given
 * user-readable values, such as "object.failureDescription".
 * These codes will be resolved by a cMessageSource object.
 *
 * <p>This interface is necessary because both runtime and checked
 * exceptions are useful, and they cannot share a common,
 * framework-specific, superclass.
 *
 * @author Rod Johnson
 * @version $Id: ErrorCoded.java,v 1.3 2004/03/18 02:46:06 trisberg Exp $
 * @see org.springframework.context.MessageSource
 */
public interface ErrorCoded {
	
	/**
	 * Return the error code associated with this failure. 
	 * The GUI can render this anyway it pleases, allowing for Int8ln etc.
	 * @return a String error code associated with this failure,
	 * or null if not error-coded
	 */
	String getErrorCode();

}
